


I will always choose you

by Sadfangirl



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 03:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5568328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sadfangirl/pseuds/Sadfangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity decided to tell Oliver why she will always choose him, and finally learns why he chose her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I will always choose you

**Author's Note:**

> I was re-watching 4x06 and it was clear to me that Oliver has no idea why Felicity choose him, so I wanted to explore this using my head cannon.
> 
> I do not own Arrow, I just borrow their characters for my writing experiments.

The fight had been brutal. It started when Oliver's secret about his son came out. Felicity was hurt that he'd kept it from her, thought he didn't trust her. Oliver then retaliated with the fact that she'd kept helping the team while they were away. Suddenly everything was on the table, Sarah, Ray, even Isobel. Working with Malcolm, keeping her and Digg in the dark, even the marriage to Nyssa and leaving the team to die in the dungeon of Nanda Parbat. Felicity let it all out - everything she'd bottled up and Oliver did the same. 

But as the anger faded and the shouting stopped they began to listen to each other. Oliver explained how he had to promise not to tell anyone about his son as a condition of seeing him (which horrified Felicity) and she explained that the team was desperate when they contacted her, then reminded him that his sister was on the team and she felt she had to keep her safe. Then Oliver started talking about how scared he was when Dhark took her, and then when she was shot. How terrified he was that he'd loose her. And then he told her about what Barry had told him, about the fight in the first timeline. How all of his fears were about loosing her, which he expected to do one day. He had tears in his eyes when he told her that he just didn't believe that she'd stay, and that he didn't deserve her anyway. That's when Felicity reached out to him, gathering him in her arms. They stayed that way for quite some time.

Both of them were drained, physically and emotionally. The fight had been cathartic for both of them. Oliver felt lighter than he had in months. No more secrets. 

"Do you want something to eat?" Oliver asked.

"I'd love something, I'm starving." Felicity replied, smiling slightly.

Oliver kissed her softly and reluctantly moved from her arms and walked over to their kitchen, grabbing her hand as he went to bring her with him. She sat down on one of their stools and watched as Oliver started his cooking ritual. Felicity knew his cooking for her was a way for him to show how much he cared, it didn't hurt that she was hopeless at it, plus he was an amazing cook.

"You said something" Felicity started, as she watched Oliver flinch slightly "that I think I should explain. No don't worry, it's nothing bad." she said, reassuring Oliver.

"I actually think it's quite funny. You still have no idea why I chose you."

Oliver nodded. It was one of the few things that he still worried about. Why this amazing genius was with him, had agreed to be his wife. 

"Just know, Oliver Jonas Queen, there was no choice to make"

Oliver looked at Felicity, remembering when he'd told her the same thing. She was smiling, and her eyes were clear, love shining from them. He matched her smile as he starting cutting vegetables. 

Felicity had never really talked to anyone about how she'd fallen in love with Oliver - even to him while they were away, and it was time she told him. 

"I was only 21 the day you walked into my office. I was closed off, doing a job that I was way better than, and hiding from life. Far too smart for my own good. You know what happened with Cooper, that my dad left. I thought it would be easier just to hide away. Never reach my potential. I was almost as closed off as you were. Then you walked in, looking for my help. Oliver Queen, in the flesh - returned from the dead, the most famous person in town. Like you, I remember that day like it was yesterday. I couldn't believe that I unleashed a full Felicity ramble on you. I thought you would leave the office and then I'd be fired. But you smiled at me and I felt something, that I hadn't felt for a long time - that there might be more to life than the existence I was living. I think, looking back, that's when I started to trust you, I'd always trust you. There was just something about you. Then you kept coming back. Do you have any idea the trouble you caused for me?"

Oliver looked horrified, but Felicity just laughed and continued "You were the talk of the building. Everyone, well the women and all of the gay men wanted to 'get to know you' but the only one you ever really talked to was me. The only time you'd talk to anyone else was to ask for me when I wasn't there. The gossips had a field day."

"I didn't realise" Oliver started, but Felicity shushed him, continuing.

"I didn't mind, honestly. It made me feel really special that you kept coming to see me, with the worst stories ever. It was amusing. The amount of questions I'd be asked about why you'd come to see me. My boss would call me in as soon as you'd leave, asking why you were there and telling me to refer you to him. I never did though - I'd tell him I'd tried but you said no, told him if he had a problem to talk to you. That always shut him up. Mind you, my excuses were worse than yours. But I liked that you came to me and valued me."

Oliver interrupted "I will always trust and value you, you know that, don't you."

"Oh shush" Felicity sighed, "You need to hear this, so listen. The night your mother shot you, and you ended up in my backseat scared the daylights out of me. It took me a long time to process everything but if I had to pinpoint a moment when I started to really care for you it was that night. What you were doing, risking, trying to make things better, that's so selfless. I think that was the point, even as you flatlined, that I finally knew who you were and when I really started to come back to life. And then you asked me to help your crusade. I think when I said that I would only stay until we saved Walter I was deluding myself. I was all-in by that point, it just took a while to admit it to myself."

"You know, you did just hang around after Walter - who asked you to stay anyway?" Oliver interrupted with laughter in his voice.

"John did. Because he knew you wouldn't." she replied.

"Oh thank goodness" Oliver sighed "You know how stubborn I was back then. So different now."

Felicity laughed, really laughed, for the first time since she'd been shot. She could also hear the lightness in Oliver's voice which made her happy.

But then Oliver got serious - there could be no more secrets anymore "You know that I was planning on bringing you in, before I got shot. That's how I knew your car, where I could hide, I'd checked you out. I thought that at some point you'd figure it out with the terrible excuses I was feeding you. Because I couldn't work out how to tell you otherwise. I almost told you the night you gave me the book, but chickened out at the last minute."

Felicity shook her head again, amused at Oliver. "For someone who use to be such a ladies man, you have no idea, do you, just how amazing you are. How people see you now."

Oliver answered,  "Then, Felicity, I was rich and there were a lot of hangers on. I never knew, or cared, who was with me just for my money. That's why Tommy and I were so close. It wasn't about money for both of us. We were on an equal footing. And the women, I don't know how much of it was because of me, I don't think any of them ever really knew me, and I'm including Laurel and Sara in that as well. But at that point I didn't really know myself, and I didn't really care. I was having fun."

"Until the boat" Felicity whispered "until the island".

"It was hell, what I had to endure, what I had to do to survive. But it was worth it."

"Really?" Felicity asked.

"Without the island I wouldn't be the man I am now. And I wouldn't have you, because you're worth a 100 years in Lain Yu."

"You're really just a big sap, aren't you" Felicity said as she walked over to cuddle into his back. He turned and gave her a quick kiss before returning to his cooking.

"Yes I am, when it comes to you. But you keep saying nice things about me, can we go back to that?"

"Ah yes, me joining Team Arrow. You gave me purpose in my life. I was helping people, I was using my talents to save lives and make things better. You know how intoxicating that is. It was hard, and we lost along the way, but it was worth it. I've grown so much, changed, become better, more than I was. The girl you met the day you walked into my office would never have stabbed Slade with a syringe and would never have stood up to Ra's and Malcolm. But I did. And I would never have had the confidence to be a CEO. But you gave me that gift. By believing in me, by trusting me. I think you were the first person I'd ever met who did that. It's no wonder I fell in love with you... That of course and the salmon ladder."

"The salmon ladder?" Oliver asked, amused.

"Oh come on. You use to love to do that in front of me, shirtless, all the time, shirtless. Digg told me that you never did it if I wasn't there. You use to love me starring at you when you did that."

"I'm not denying it" Oliver answered. "I liked it. I liked that you looked at me. It made me feel good about myself, when nothing else did."

"You show off" Felicity laughed. "You ruined me for other men, you really did with that body of yours. And that's before I found out about your other talents."

"Oh, talents, really, and what might they be?" Oliver almost crooned at her, smiling his most playful smile.

"Cooking, cooking" she replied quickly. Then changing track "Nothing else I can think of, can you?"

"So the real reason you chose me, the truth comes out" Oliver stated, trying to sound serious but with too much joy in his voice "is because of my body. My little genius is shallow and only wants me for my abs."

He started to dish up their stir fry. Both now realising just how hungry they were. 

"Yip" said Felicity between bites of food. "Just the abs. Nothing to do with anything else, not your pure heart or your belief in me or the hero in you. Just the abs. Oh, and your cooking skills. Because this is good."

"I was just checking. Now I don't feel so bad because the reason I'm here with you is because of that ass of yours, oh and the legs aren't too bad either."

Felicity threw a piece of broccoli at Oliver. She loved this playfulness, especially after the fight they'd had. "Well, these are all natural for me, you have to work at those abs of yours."

"Felicity, your attributes are quite spectacular, and when you switched to the short tight dresses after you became my EA it was very distracting for me. You knew I was checking you out. I think at that point we were almost subconsciously teasing each other."

"Oh, come on Oliver, you had every hot woman in the city after you. I couldn't compete with all those model types."

"And you never will have to." Oliver decided to get serious, he was touched by what Felicity had told him, that his faith in her meant so much, "Because you did something that no woman I've ever known was able to do."

Felicity looked at Oliver, not quite understanding what he meant, so he continued "You made me laugh, made me not take myself so seriously, I could smile around you. I actually liked you. I'd never had that before, women for me where always about will I sleep with them or not - I never saw one as a friend before you. I just liked being around you. You made me feel real, human, comfortable in my own skin. First time ever. And that's so potent. With you I feel like a human being, not the monster that the Island created." Oliver paused for a moment, then continued "When you told me that you didn't want to be a woman I loved, after the mountain, I thought I'd lost you forever. And a part of me died, or I thought it did. I started to believe that I was wrong, that you didn't love me. That you'd never loved me."

Felicity gave Oliver a look of complete incredulity, but let him finish.

"That night, in Nanda Parbat, when you told me you loved me my heart soared and I just couldn't push you away anymore. The best and smartest person I'd ever met, with the purest heart, if you could love me then just maybe there was hope for me. You loved me, not the billionaire, not the CEO, not even the Arrow. Just Oliver, stripped to the bone. I knew I loved you before that night, but after, even when you'd drugged me to try and save me, I realised that I'd found my everything and I will always choose you."

Felicity smiled and leaned over to kiss her fiance. The kiss deepened, their meal forgotten.

__

Later, lying in bed, feeling content and sated, with her head on his chest, Felicity asked Oliver to tell her about William.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos feed my muse. I'd love to know what you think?


End file.
